To prevent evaporation in reagent bottles the bottles have to be closed in storage area when not in use. They also have to be easily opened before the dispensing probe goes in to bottle to aspirate the reagent. After dispensing the bottle has to be reliably closed again.
Reagent containers used with clinical and laboratory analyzers are generally closed using caps and closures that have been developed in order to keep the contents of the containers uncontaminated or prevent evaporation. Many of the solutions contain piercable septums. Piercing these closures may, however, cause contamination of both dispensers and container contents, since it often is the edge of the dispenser needles that is used for the piercing, whereby the dispenser will come into contact with the closure each time it is used.
EP 0 542 295 concerns a stopper fitted on the mouth of a drug vessel body, which stopper is composed of a stopper body of an elastomeric material and has a hole passing therethrough along its center axis, and a closing body fitted in the hole of said stopper body, said closing body being in the form of a spherical member with a diameter greater than that of said hole, and said closing body being opened just before use using an unpointed end of a separate member for forcing the closing body in the hole to push in the vessel body.
EP 1 010 635 presents a pot-shaped cap comprising a lid portion and a skirt portion to be securely attached to a closed container neck of a drug container, with at least two puncture openings being provided in the lid portion of the cap, and a seal, which is made of an elastic material and covers the puncture openings, being located in the lid portion, said seal being inserted in a chamber integrally formed with the lid portion, said chamber protruding outwardly over the outside of the lid portion and said seal being disk-shaped.
JP 8313535 presents a plug body mounted on the mouth section of a container, which plug body contains a hole for passing a pipette meant to suck up a reagent from the reagent container and discharge it into a reaction container.
JP 2004157020 concerns a reagent container comprising a cap that is fitted to the opening of the container and that is made of an elastic material. The cap has a cross-like cut, which can be deformed by pressing and inserting a guide pipe into the cut from the outside.
Another type of closures essentially consists of two structures, one of which being the skirt that surrounds the opening of the vessel, keeping the closure in place, the other structure forming the lid, covering the opening of the vessel and being attached to the first structure by a spring. These types of closures have the disadvantage of requiring much free space around the vessel when being opened to allow the entire lid structure to move in the required direction.
EP 0 909 584 describes a cap for a reagent container, which is provided with a scalable lid, which lid can be pivoted laterally upward from the cap sealing position, with the container being opened, by means of an inclined bistable hinge, and which lid bears one or more catches, which can come into contact with an apparatus for opening or closing the lid.
A further type of closures contains a complex combination of elements meant to prevent evaporation, leakage of liquids and contamination.
CA 2 520 921 describes a dispensing assembly to be coupled to a vessel, the assembly containing a tip that includes a valve to allow drop-wise liquid dispensing, a vent opening, a filtration element and an antibacterial liner enabling the solution in the vessel to remain sterile.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,269,977 concerns a container cover consisting of a single molded disc shaped device with an elevated flat surface functioning as a platform for supporting another container thereon.
JP 2002019855 describes an adapter for preventing the liquid in a container from coming into contact with air, the adapter containing an opened upper part and a closed bottom part, the bottom further including a cut from which the liquid carp can be separately taken.
EP 1 495 747 presents a liquid drug container with a nozzle member and a nozzle cap, wherein the nozzle hole of the nozzle member is covered with a hydrophilic filter, and a top wall of the nozzle member is provided with an air hole covered with a hydrophobic filter.
The disadvantages of conventional closures include that in order to provide a solution that prevents evaporation and contamination, a very complex closure with several separate components is used. These complex solutions still do not focus on preventing contamination caused by contact between the closure and the dispenser, only between the inside of the vessel and the environment. The solutions of the prior art also fail in providing vessel closures that allow the dispensing devices to function without ever touching the vessels or the closures.
A reliable method for handling closure caps of liquid containers or other devices like pipette tips needed for transport and storage of liquids used during analyses using automated analyzing apparatuses has not been available. The apparatuses and methods in use utilize complicated robotic gripers, which provide great flexibility but are unnecessarily complicated and expensive and possibly difficult to keep clean.
For the above reasons, it would be beneficial to provide a reagent bottle and a cap that can be easily opened and closed in order to prevent evaporation and contamination of the reagent when in storage and to provide free access through the mouth of the bottle to the contents of the reagent bottle.
Further in order to provide reliable automated handling of the reagent bottle caps or other closures of liquid containers used in automated analyzing apparatuses as well as liquid handling devices like pipette tips, a novel system, method and apparatus should be provided.